Dental roll dispenser



July 25, 1933- a. E. SIQVELAND DENTAL ROLL DISPENSER Filed April 16, 1931 dbtoz M11 Patented July 25, 1933 UNITED STATES 'IVAR SIQYELAND, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA DENTAL ROLL DISPENSER Application filed April 16,

The present invention relates to a dispensing mechanism and more particularly to a mechanism for dispensing cylindrical'objects, such as rolls of absorbent cotton, such as are used by dentists. I j r I At present dentists keep their cotton rolls, which are usually cut into short lengths for convenient use in a patients mouth, in a drawer or in a glass jar, and, when it is desired to use a roll, the roll is picked from the drawer or the jar either with the tweezersor with the fingers. This leaves the rolls exposed to the air and also presents the possibility of contamination of other rolls by touching them with the tweezers or fingers which have been in the patients mouth. I

An object of the present invention is to make an improved and simplified dispensing mechanism.

In order to attain this object, there is provided, in accordance with one feature of the invention, a container adapted to hold a quantity of articles to be dispensed, said container having an aperture of a size topermit the discharge of one of the articles therethrough. This aperture is normally closed by a member which is arranged to be moved away from the opening upon operation of the mechanism and a pusher is arranged to be operated simultaneously with the removal of the closure from the opening to eject one of the articles through said opening.

These andother features of the invention will be more fully brought out in the follow- 5 ing description and the accompanying drawing, wherein:

' Figure 1 is a view in perspective of a mechanism embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a vertical, longitudinal view through the mechanism'shown in Figure 1,

the solid lines indicating the parts in an unoperated position, and the dotted lines indicating the parts in operated condition.

Figure 3 is aview in front elevation of a combined ejector lever and closure member.

Figure l is a View in front elevation of a combined ejector and agitating member. v

Figure 5 is a view in front elevation of a door. I

Figure 6 is an enlarged'sectional view of a 1931. Serial No. 536,455.

lowerrear corner of a size o f the housing showing a slot for holding the ejector lever in position. i

Figure 7 is 'a' still furth'er enlarged view in perspective of a slotted member illustrated in Figure 6; and Figure 8 is a top View showing one-half of the ejector lever illustrated in Figure 3.

Referring to the drawing in detail, a housing'A comprises similar side members 1 with a back plate 2 having a. curved upper por- .tion 3 permanently secured to said side memv bers. The lower-edges 4 of the side members are bent inwardly and are secured-toa base member 5 as by means of bolts 6. A door is provided with a sight opening 8-which is preferably covered on its rear face by a transparent closure member 9 such as glass or celluloid. This transparent closure meniher is held in place by means of clips 10 secured to the rear face'of' the door. A curved metal plate 11 is securelyand permanently mountedacross the inner face of the lower edge of the door and acts as a cam to prevent the rolls from jamming upon actuation of the *7 5 V mechanism. Tongues 12 and 13 extend downwardly from the two sides of the door, the sides 14 ofwliich are bent atjrig ht angles .to the face of the door to fornr overlapping flanges which overlap the forward edges of B0 the side walls of the housingA. Pins 15 pivotally secure the door to the housing so that the door may be swung outwardly for the insertion of afresh supply of rolls into the housing. The door 7 is mounted with its lower edge spaced upwardly from a bottom plate 16 of the housing A a suflicientdistance to permit a roll to pass betweenthe lower edge of the door and thebottomp'late. curved plate 17, preferably of springma- 90. terial, is mounted as illustrated inFigure'Q, the forward upper edge of the curved plate 17 being bent downwardly as at 18 to engage the side of a nut 19; An adjusting screw 20 is threadedly connected to the nut 19' and by' means'of thescrews 20 and'the nut 19 the tension on the spring plateg17 maybe adjusted. The lower end'of the'spring plate 17 is rounded and extended rearwardly as at 21.

Thislower portion of the spring plate- 17 109 forms an ejector for ejecting a roll through the opening between the lower edge of the door 7 and the bottom plate 16. A combined ejector lever and closure member B has a sub-' stantiallyvertical rear portion 22, a horizontal lower portion 23, and an upwardly bent portion 24 which forms a closure over the ejectionopening, below the door 17 An operating key 25 is connected to ex end for- I to prevent jamming with said roll. Upon wardly from the portion 2 1 and two curved port1ons 26 and 27 are provided to receive a roll upon ejectionand to permit seizing the roll by its center as by means of tweezers or the fingers. The member B is provided with a pair of projections 28 and 29 at the angle between thevertical rear portion 22 and the horizontal portion 23. A pair of slotted members 30 are permanently secured to the lower rear corners of the side members 1 asv by brazing. It will be noted that the permanent bottom portion 16 of the container terminates short of the rear wall 2 of the container so as to permit inserting the vertical rear portion 22 of the ejector lever there-in. Theejector lever is placed with the vertical rear portion 22 thereof in this slotted opening and is raised up so that the pins 28 and 29 enter the slots in the members 30. vVheu the pins 28 and 29 reach the tops of the vertical portions of the slots, the-member B is moved ,to become-displaced. The horizontal portion 23 of the member B is cut away at the sides thereof, as illustrated in Figure 8, to avoid striking the inturned edges 4 on the bottoms of the side walls; r

'Inoperation of the device, the door 7 is openedanda quantity of rollsto be dispensed are placed in the interior of the container A .in horizontal, transverse position. The door 7 is then closed. The operator by placing a finger 32' indicated indotted lines in Figure 2, upon the operating key25, depresses the ejector lever to the dotted line position shown in Figure 2. It will be noted thatsome clearance is providedbetween the rounded forward-lower portion 21 of the spring plate 22 and a roll 33 to be ejected. This is required, since the ejector lever B starts the spring .plate 22 forward immediately upon starting depression of the ejector lever. The vertical portion 24 of the ejector lever does not, however, immediately clear the opening.' It is preferable that the rounded forward portion 21 of the spring plate 22engages the roll 23 islightly before the vertical portion 24 clears the ejection opening sulficiently to discharge the roll, so that when the vertical portion 24 does clear the opening a slight spring pressure will be present against the roll. In this I manner when thevertical portion 24: clears to raise any roll not in position for ejection out of position. The camplate 11 acts to supportthe rolls above the one toibe dispensed operation of the device it will be noted that the vertical rearportion of the spring plate prevents their feedin gproperl from dispensing devices in which such; agitation is not pro: -vided.. I r

I claim:

1. An article dispensing device, comprising a container havinga dispensing opening therein, a closure membernormally covering said opening, a plate mounted interiorly of awall of said container opposite said opening, the lowerendof said plate being curved outwardly toward said opening and having a portion thereof spaced inwardly from saidopening a distance suficient to receive an article to be dispensed forwardly thereof, and a an operating lever having a portion thereof extending upwardly between said plate and said. container wall opposite said opening, said lever being connected to said closure member to simultaneously remove said closure member from said opening and to movesaid plate toward said opening. to eject an article plate. V v

2. An article dispenser, comprising a container having a dispensing openingtherein,

a plate mounted interiorly of the-wall opposite said opening, the lower end of said plate being curved downwardly and toward said opening,- a metal plate having an upwardly bent portion positioned to engage thezrear face of said curved plate, a-horizontal portion of said plate being positioned to extend forwardly and having the forward portion thereof bent upwardly to close said dispensing opening, and operating means connected to said-plate to simultaneously lower said vertical forward portionto uncover said dispensing opening and to .move "said rearportion forwardly to move saidplate to discharge an article positioned forwardly thereof through said dispensing openin IVAB, E. s ovEfi D;

positioned forwardly of said 

